Category: Survey

Structural surveys are becoming an increasingly important part of our work. To showcase our capabilities in this field, we have launched a new video. It shows our work on everything from ancient monuments to football stadiums.

Founded in 597 and rebuilt in 1077, Canterbury Cathedral is one of Britain’s oldest and best known ecclesiastical buildings. It is home to the Archbishop of Canterbury, it was the site of Thomas Becket’s murder, and it features in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. By any standards, the Cathedral is exceptionally rich in history and, indeed, it is part of a recognised World Heritage site. Continue reading “Structural Survey: Canterbury Cathedral”

The University of Manchester owns and manages many historic listed buildings and these include a notable collection on Coupland Street, where SUAVE was recently asked to conduct an extensive roof survey. Coupland 3, for example, was built in 1891 as part of the School of Medicine and, today, it’s a striking structure of brickwork, decorative masonry and spires. Continue reading “Aerial Survey of the Coupland Buildings”

Situated in the scenic fields of Wensleydale, Middleham Castle was built in stages, beginning in 1190 – a year after Richard I took the English throne. It was the childhood home of Richard III and, briefly, a prison for King Edward IV. Today, though a ruin, it is still highly impressive and it remains a very popular tourist attraction. The castle – essentially a fortified palace – comprises the original 12th century Norman keep, a 13th century curtain wall, and a series of residential buildings added in the 15th century. Continue reading “Middleham Castle, North Yorkshire”

Creswell Crags is a limestone gorge located by a small lake in Worksop. It has long been recognised as a site of archaeological importance but the recent carbon dating of a disarticulated reindeer bone has provided fascinating evidence that human occupation began more than 40,000 years ago and that the gorge might once have been home to Neanderthal hunters. Continue reading “Aerial Survey of Creswell Crags, Nottinghamshire”

In March 2012, SUAVE submitted a successful tender for a project that would entail producing an extensive photographic record of Monmouth Beach near Lyme Regis, which is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. In particular, the World Heritage Team required a very high resolution baseline aerial survey of the wave-cut platforms along the beach, which have been the subject of several significant failures in recent years. The survey was required to document any changes and, by capturing photographs of a sufficient resolution, to enable geologists to carry out a detailed analysis of cracks and faults that might otherwise be difficult to discern. Continue reading “Monmouth Beach Survey, Lyme Regis”